Vučić, Aleksandar

Vučić, Aleksandar, 1970– Serbian political leader. First elected to Serbia's national assembly in 1993 as a member of the far-right Serbian Radical party (SRS), he was an advocate of a Greater Serbia and defender of ethnic Serb leaders during the 1992–95 war in Bosnia, in which thousands of Muslims were killed. In 1995 he became SRS secretary-general. As minister of information under Mirko Marjanović (1998–2000), he imposed harsh censorship on the media. In 2008 Vučić left the party and joined the center-right Serbian Progressive party (SNS) as its deputy president. Party leader from 2012, he abandoned many of his nationalistic positons and became an advocate of Serbian membership in the European Union. He served as minister of defense (2012–13) and deputy prime minister(2012–14) Ivica Dačić's government, and as head of the largest party in the coalition had a siginifcant influence on policy. Following the 2014 elections, Vučić became prime minister.